My bike is a 1999 Interstate with 15,000 miles on it. It ran perfectly before I installed the Redeye kit.
I've read about some people having vacuum leaks and I wanted to avoid that on my Valk. I've also been reading about people that had the dreaded hydrolock problem and I REALLY wanted to avoid that as well. My oem petcock developed a leak 2 years ago so at that time I installed the petcock rebuild kit purchased from HDL. My plan was to install the Redeye Shiny DeSmog kit along with a Dan Marc electric fuel valve.
My Valk was still in the air from Winter storage on my ATV jack and the red lift adapter I bought off eBay a couple of years ago. I first read over the very good Redeye instructions a couple of times before I did anything.
I first removed the Hondaline tank belt and the tank. The vent hose and the fuel hose are a real PITA to remove and install. Patience pays off in the end.
I then removed the airbox which was a bit more trouble than I thought it would be.
Step 4 of the Redeye instructions say to remove the two front and the two rear intake manifolds. It says the two center manifolds will support the entire carb assembly. I DID NOT DO THIS. I saw no reason to as the PAIR valves and the vacuum actuator along with the associated hoses clearly come out from above. So again, I didn't remove the four intake manifolds.
On my Interstate, I found I simply had to remove the Mike Terry spot lights as well as the crash bars. There's simply no room to get to the two front chrome pipe mounts with the crash bars installed. The bars come out easily enough as well.
All was going well until I had to remove the right front chrome pipe that runs down to the exhaust port. This pipe was clearly put in place at the factory prior to the timing chest of the engine being installed. The instructions suggest a hacksaw blade or diagonal cutters to cut or bend it into submission. I saw little chance of getting a hacksaw blade in their and the diagonal cutters I had were too short to get a good bite onto the pipe. Off to Sears where I bought 3 Channel Lock pliers. The Channel Lock diagonal cutters I bought are double jointed and long enough that I was able to crimp the pipe real tight. They didn't cut through the pipe but they made it weak enough that I was able to bend it back and forth just enough for it to snap after a couple of minutes. There really wasn't much room to work on that pipe. I wanted to cut it once on top of the engine so the top half would come out from above and the bottom half from below. Whew, for me, this was (by far) the toughest part of the whole job.
The installation of the Redeye chrome caps is pretty straightforward and easily done as per the instructions. Same with the two exhaust block off plates. I did not remove the exhaust system but doing so would have given more room to work. I just didn't want to remove any more items and was able to get the bolts into the block off plates with a little effort.
The rest of the Redeye kit goes on fairly easy as per the instructions.
One thing I use to make the hoses go on a little easier is to use a little Vaseline on the end of a Q-Tip. A little goes a long way to help get them on.
While I had the airbox out, I installed the Dan Marc fuel valve as per MarkT's instructions found here:
http://horseapple.com/Valkyrie/Tech_Tips/Fuel_Shutoff/fuel_shutoff.html Thank you Mark T for the excellent write up! I grounded one wire to a mounting point on the top of the engine case for a PAIR valve and attached the other wire to the switched hot side of my spot light relay. My spots don't have a on/off switch so they're on anytime the key is on.
To install the airbox I first watched Dag's YouTube video found here:
I followed this video and the airbox slipped into place MUCH easier than I ever thought it would. Don't forget the tip Dag shows about a small inspection mirror. My wife helped me to get the six rubber boots back onto the carbs. I found that slightly rotating them from inside the airbox helped a lot. Once they were fit tight all around, I held the rubber boot tight against the carb with the long Channel Lock needle nose pliers while my wife tightened the clamping screw. This really worked well.
Dag has another video for removing the rear wheel found here:
Again, if you follow the video, his procedure works great. Thank you Dag!
The other two pair of Channel Lock pliers I bought are very long double jointed needle nose. One bent nose and the other straight. I had some Craftsman long bent and long straight needle nose pliers but they aren't as long and they aren't double jointed. Being double jointed means a small separation of the handles makes the ends of the pliers open much farther. These pliers made installing the fuel hose and the tank vent hose easier. I first wrapped the ends of the pliers with black lectrical tape to keep from cutting into the hoses.
Once I had the tank back on I added a couple gallons of fuel, turned the key (love that fuel valve click), waited a minute and it fired right up! It STILL runs perfectly only now the engine top has a much cleaner look as well as being easier to clean. Plus I don't have to worry about a vacuum leak to start in 13+ year old hoses and connections.
Thank you Redeye, thank you MarkT, thank you Dag and thank you to the VRCC for keeping this valuable sight so relevant.
All the best,
Mark
PS - when cleaning up my work bench I found the Redeye Stealth DeSmog kit I forgot buying two years ago. I'll donate it to the VRCC as a giveaway at this years Inzane.
